The secret is out
by NachoMama37
Summary: Some good natured teasing from Saphron outs a secret. oneshot


A/N: Eh, let's try our hand at another shipping fic. Why not? Lancaster and ReNora. I've been kinda working on this one off and on the last two weeks. I figured I'd throw the finishing touches on it I between the next chapter of Icy Knight. This references some things from Adventuresome but isn't part of that story.

Only Ren and Nora knew. Qrow might've suspected, but never brought it up. When the pro huntsman started travelling with them, their relationship was moved to the back burner. They didn't mind really, they had a sort of unspoken mutual understanding- save the world first, romance later. When Oscar and the others joined, they needed to put the back burner on the back burner. Their relationship was pure and sweet. They hadn't even kissed, they just knew they found great comfort in each other. Honestly they hadn't really put a name to what they were. They were kind of like Nora and Ren in that respect. Saphron wasn't privy to any of this information, so when her good natured ribbing of her baby brother telling him to "Get a girlfriend already!" fell flat she was left totally confused.

Jaune drags his sister to the den. Ruby, Ren and Nora following. Ren looked rather stoic as usual, Ruby and Nora chuckling together at the siblings antics.

"Saff! Are you trying to get me killed!? It's a good thing Yang is upstairs with the other girls!" Jaune ran a hand over his face gesturing wildly in the general direction of up.

Ruby rolls her eyes. "Jaune you're overreacting, Yang isn't *that* bad"

Jaune looked incredulous "I'm reacting the exact right amount after you told me what she did to the boy at Signal that asked you out!"

"Pssht, he was fine, he only limped for like a week." Ruby laughs waving the concern away.

Saphron blinks, the dots connecting. She's equal parts overjoyed and worried. She's glad to have some more teasing material and she's happy for her brother in general. She is also a mother, so she's concerned with them being in the wilds all those months unsupervised. They could be in over their heads if things had gone too far. She needs to gage the situation carefully. She has them all sit so they can talk. Ren nudges Nora with his elbow. He has an inkling Saphron is about to have the same talk with the together but not quite together-together couple as Nora had. The redhead smiles at her man, nodding. This is going to be great!

"So.." Saphron starts "How long?"

Jaune hmms, "It's hard to pinpoint exactly, a few months maybe?" Jaune looks to Ruby for confirmation. She nods, he sighs releaved he got it right. "That's about right." Nora pipes up, Ren elbows her gently for interrupting.

Saphron nods accepting the answer. "Next question, how serious are you two?" Adrien may be just a baby butSaphron had totally mastered the stern parent voice.

Jaune and Ruby look to each other for a moment. Jaune rubs the back of his neck nervously. It's not fair that Saff sounds just like their mom when he would get scolded.

"Well, it's kind of hard to put into words."Saphron gives him the mom look. Jaune waves his hands in front of himself "Hey! I'm trying ok!" Nora chuckles, Ren gently elbows her. Ruby gives him a small reassuring smile that calms his nerves. He rubs the back of his neck this is a really hard question to answer. "It's complicated.. for both of us, we're committed that much is a given.. we both have things we're working through before we can make anything official. If that makes sense?"

Saphron looks to Ruby who nods in response. She smiles remembering the dark haired girls words from earlier in the day. "I cant believe I finally get to meet your sister!" She thinks the girl is absolutely adorable. She takes a second to look the pair over, they do make a cute couple. Jaune always spoke highly of the girl in his letters to her so she had a general idea of the girls personality. From the little she's seen in person it seems he described her well. The turn of events tonight making it clear why. It was adorable. She has a few questions more to ask when Terra pokes her head in the room.

"There you are! Adrian finally settled down to sleep." Terra looks back and forth between her wife and the four teens sitting in the floor of her den. "Am I interrupting anything here?"

Saphron smiles both at her wife and at the way Jaune and Ruby turned matching shades of tomato red. "Oh, you are babe, but you'll want in on this. Terra raises an eyebrow, but comes in when Saphron pats the seat beside her. Terra settles in looking to Saphron for answers. Her wife having an odd mischievous look in her eyes. "Your baby brother in law has a girlfriend." She explains motioning to Ruby. Terras eyes widen understanding.

"Saff, you're going to get me killed! We just talked about this! Don't say that so loud!" Jaune whisper shouts, again motioning in the general direction of up.

Terra raises her eyebrow at the blonde boy. "Yang'll break his legs." Nora supplies matter of factly shrugging. Ren let's out a short surprised laugh despite himself. Ruby breaks out in laughter causing Jaune to pout a bit. Terra snorts amused.

"Okay, back to the serious stuff." Saphron is using the mom tone again. "How did this all start?"

Jaune smiles one of the softest smiles Saphron has ever seen on his face. " We've always been friends since our first day at Beacon. We were.. are.. both team leaders. She helped me with a lot of things. Then, all the bad stuff happened and she sent me a letter. We travelled together the four of us getting closer as friends.. as a family. I think the thing that really made me realize there was more to my feelings…" He sighs it wasn't a fond memory. Ruby tentatively reaches out placing her hand on his knee to comfort him. He in turn puts his hand on top of hers and and Terra smile softly urging him to finish his story.

He sighs again "We were travelling between towns and misjudged how much food we needed to bring. We misjudged the travel time too. Long story short.. Ruby ended up getting really sick. it scared me." Nora interjects saying it scared them all. Ruby fidgets still feeling a bit guilty. "I think that was the first time I felt like maybe there was more to my feelings than friendship. It was a long while before I really processed my feelings but I think that's where it started for me at least. Saphron nods accepting her brothers answer for now. This certainly sheds light on the two days before Ruby and her group arrived. Jaune was a basket case, pacing the halls up and down, checking his scroll obsessively. "Ruby, what about you?"

Jaune squeezes her hand noticing she's feeling fidgety under all the scrutiny. " I cant really pick out an exact moment. I've always liked Jaune, but, not like-liked him? We were socially awkward buddies at Beacon" She stops to think. "Oh! I know! That travelling carnival at that one town! Jaunes better at telling the story though."

Nora couldn't handle the cute any longer she launches herself tackling Ruby. "Ohhh you two are so adorkable I cant even stand it" Ren calls her name she ignores him, tackling Jaune next.

Terra is curious now. "So, what happened at the carnival?"

Jaune manages to pry Nora off of him. Sitting back up. Ruby laughing quietly.

"I love this story!" Nora grins. "As do I" Ren agrees.

Jaune looks to Ruby, she nods to him. "Its kind of silly really. Ruby loves weapons like most people love puppies. She was at the weapons stall of this little carnival completely in love with the assortment. A pretty girl who is a weapon nut tends to attract all sorts of attention. We worked out a system where when the girls were being bothered Ren or I would go pretend to be their boyfriend. It works every time! This one boy though, he just wouldn't take the hint. Thinking fast I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and we just kind of stayed like that all night wandering the carnival together. We never really said anything out loud ya know? We just kind of knew it was the start of something. " Ruby nods in agreement.

Saphron takes a minute to think. "Have you discussed it since? What would you officially call your relationship?"

Jaune rubs his neck again, a nervous habit. "Well, it's not like we are officially anything yet.. we honestly haven't really discussed what *we* are. We are on a very important mission, everything else has to come second. It's just the way things have to be for now"

Ruby picks up for him. "We've both been aware of that from the start. We aren't rushing anything either. We have our whole lives to figure this out." Ruby finishes for him.

Saphron takes a minute to mull over their answers. She has a few more questions to ask. So far she's doing a great job of not giving into her urge to hug them both and pinch their cheeks. They are so ridiculously cute and sweet! She does have one last very important question. Its uncomfortable to ask but, she would regret not asking and playing her part as her baby brothers guardian.

"I have one last question ."She says leveling them with a stern gaze. "You two haven't done anything…. Inappropriate.. have you?"

Terra sputters caught off guard. Ren looks at the floor flustered on Jaunes behalf. Nora thinks seriously about covering Ruby's ears.

"SAFF!" Jaune shouts face red, eyes wide and more embarrassed than he had ever been in his life.

"What do you mean?" Ruby blinks, wide eyed innocence shining through. She takes a second to fully process the question. When it finally sinks in she turns five shades of red. "OH! No ma'am!" She shakes her head, suddenly feeling very awkward.

"Not to worry! Mama Nora allows no shenanigans on her watch!" Nora pipes up. Ren sighs, rolling his eyes.

"Besides that, I'd kill both of them if they were engaging in any… extra curricular activities. I kept a close eye on these four over the months. They didn't know it but they were under adult supervision the whole time." Qrows deep voice startles everyone.

Saphron hmms "That makes me feel much better actually!"

Jaune looks like he's trying to melt into the floor. Qrow was insanely protective of his niece, Yang was one thing. Qrow terrifies him on a whole different level.

Ruby blinks at her uncle mortified. "Uncle Qrow, you've known the whole time?" He nods "Please don't tell anyone yet!" He chuckles a little. "Not to worry kiddo, you're secrets safe with me, and blondie don't worry I'm not gonna kill you yet." Qrow waves leaving the group. Jaune sighs in relief when something strikes him.. "yet?" Ruby and Nora laugh despite themselves.

Terra processes everything for a minute. "Why is it a secret though?"

Ruby sighs. "It's kind of complicated. Part of it is honestly that we are taking everything slow. I don't really have any relationship experience to go on. Too many eyes on us would feel awkward."

Jaune joins. "That, and we are still working out what *we* are you know? I know I care about her on a different level than I've ever cared about anyone."

"I feel the same." Ruby interrupts. "There's a lot of other things that have first priority. Our mission, my team, well the rest of my team just recently rejoined us. They all have other things to work through."

"We all do." Ren supplies, Nora nods and adds in. "its also part of the reason Ren and I are keeping low key too. They know were together-together, but we are careful to keep things simple?"

Saphron and Terra share a look and smile. These kids are surprisingly mature Saffron feels both proud and sad about that fact.

"Alright, your secret is safe with us. Just promise me that you'll think long and hard before taking any big steps?"

The four teens nod and promise. Terra sends them off to bed. "They are super cute, all of them" Terra agrees snuggling her wife. " We get to mercilessly tease them at every opportunity?" She asks. "Oh you better believe it" Saphron laughs.

A/N: well, how did I do? Edited to fix that I had been writing Saffs name wrong.


End file.
